Why it works: Raisin and flour match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,075 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
War Cake
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Make the batter
Combine lard, raisins, salt, and cinnamon in a pot.
Boil the mixture for five minutes after it starts bubbling.
Allow the mixture to cool.
Mix in the sifted flour and baking powder.
Dissolve the baking soda in hot water and add it to the mixture.
Bake
Pour the batter into two loaf pans.
Bake at 350°F (175°C) until done.
Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.
Explore the science
The flavor team
The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.
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Raisin + flourtop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together9,075 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
-
Raisin + cinnamontop 1% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together5,390 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).
-
Cinnamon + flourtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together17,341 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Raisins
- Provide sweetness and chewy texture throughout the cake.
- Lard
- Adds fat for tenderness and moisture in the crumb.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the mixture to help the cake rise and lighten.
- Baking powder
- Releases gas during baking to give additional rise.
- Sifted flour
- Forms the structure that sets the cake as it bakes.
The step that matters
Boil the mixture for five minutes after it starts bubbling. Boiling the fruit, fat and spices together softens the raisins and blends the flavors. Cooling before adding the leaveners keeps the baking soda and baking powder from releasing their gas too early, so the rise is not lost.
Swap the cinnamon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (raisin, flour):
- Jalapenofits better
- Cinnamonthe original
- Nutmegfits less well
- Capersfits less well
Fit is the average pairing score against raisin, flour. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.
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